EFFECT OF REPEATED BAKING OF MANUAL METAL ARC WELDING ELECTRODES ON WELD METAL CHARACTERISTICS

Abstract

The present work was aimed at finding the effect of repetitive baking at constant temperature of 250°C on weld metal characteristic obtained by using two brands of electrodes of class E-7018 (Basic type) from different manufacturers. It has been found that 2 hours of baking was not sufficient to remove all the moisture and hence the mechanical properties were inferior. 120 hrs of repetitive baking gave better mechanical properties. But the mechanical properties were seen to detonate as the amount of baking was increased to 180, 240. and 300 hrs. The diffusible hydrogen in the weldment reduces appreciably after baking of 120 hrs, but after that only slightly for still longer durations of repetitive baki